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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781621060307 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Microcosm Publishing |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2012 |
| Series: | Good Life Series |
| Edition description: | New Edition |
| Pages: | 160 |
| Sales rank: | 999,724 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Film Camera
Why learn how to shoot film? I'm talking about film film: sprocket holes and light sensitive emulsion. Isn't everything going digital? Well, you could also ask why learn Latin. It's a dead language, right?
Even if you shoot digital video and never touch a frame of film, many of the concepts you'll be dealing with, not to mention plenty of the terminology, come directly from the world of filmmaking. So in the same way that learning Latin gives you insight into how a language like English works, learning about film will help you understand how even the most cutting edge digital video works.
What is film, exactly? If you were to magnify it enough, you'd see that it's made up of a light-sensitive layer called the emulsion that is stuck to a layer of plastic called the base.
The base side of film is shiny. The emulsion side is matte.
The emulsion is made of gelatin. In fact, you can think of the emulsion as a Jello mold. Instead of cherries suspended in the gelatin, however, there are countless little grains of light-sensitive silver salts.
Light from a source (the sun, for instance) bounces off a subject and enters the camera lens.
Next, the light waves encounter the shutter. The shutter is like a little door. When it's open, light can pass through and reach the film.
When it's closed it can't.
The shutter is actually circular disk with a little opening through which light can pass.
Since there are 360 degrees in a circle, shutters are measured by the number of degrees of the opening.
As the shutter spins, it alternately opens and closes. When it's open, light can pass through the aperture and expose the film. When the shutter is closed, light can't.
If film moved continuously past the shutter, the individual film frames wouldn't have a chance to be sharply exposed. Instead, your film would just be a big blur.
Instead, the film moves past the shutter in very quick stops and starts. Thanks to the intermittent mechanism of the camera, at the same moment the shutter is open, a single frame of film is positioned (orregistered) on the other side of the aperture window. The film stops there for a fraction of a second, allowing for a sharp, stable exposure.
Next, the shutter spins to its closed position and inside the camera, it grows dark … very dark. That's when the claw emerges from its lair. The claw grabs a sprocket hole and advances the film to the next unexposed frame, registering it just as the shutter spins open again.
And so it goes, frame after frame. The film stops. The shutter opens. A frame is exposed. The shutter closes. The claw pulls down the next frame. This is the intermittent movement magic of the movie camera.
By taking lots of pictures really fast, a movie camera is able to translate continuous movements out in the world into a series of still photographs on the film.
It turns out that 24 is a pretty arbitrary number. In the early days of cinema, camera operators tried to shoot at around 16 FPS. Any less than that resulted in flickery movies (hence the term "Flicks"). But since movie cameras were hand-cranked, cameras speeds could vary greatly. This caused all sorts of problems for film projectionists.
It wasn't till the advent of sound films in the late 1920's that cinema engineers decided they needed a standard film speed. 24 FPS was the number they more or less pulled out of their hat.
What about the film projector – how does it work? Like a movie camera, a movie projector's mechanism is based on intermittent movement: each frame of film pauses for 1/24 of a second in front of the aperture, then the shutter spins open (usually, it spins open twice per frame which helps to reduce image flicker), allowing the projector lamp to shine through the film and project an image on the screen.
You can think of a film projector as a film camera in reverse. A camera turns movement into a series of still images. A projector turns still images back into movement.
So that's how the movie camera works and that's how the movie projector works, but we still haven't answered the big question: how do movies work?
The magic trick has two parts. The first part has to do with flicker. Imagine if you slowed down the film projector so it ran the film reallyslow. What you'd see is an alternating series of still images (when the shutter opens) and black (when the shutter closes). It would be like watching a slide show instead of a movie.
Now speed up the projector. At a certain speed the flicker will disappear, and the brightness of the image will appear steady. This magical moment is called FLICKER FUSION.
The second part of the magic trick is the ILLUSION of APPARENT MOTION.
In the early 20th century, the psychologist Max Wertheimer observed that when he showed people two slides in quick succession – one slide of a ball on the left side of the screen, the other slide of a ball on the right side of the screen – most people would report that they saw the ball move from screen left to screen right.
Of course, nothing had actually move. It's an optical illusion; or more precisely, a neuro-physiological illusion.
When you watch movies, your eyes receive visual information that they convert to signals that are sent to your brain.
Then it's up to your brain to make sense of that information. Your brain connects the dots and fills in the gaps. It turns still images into moving images. In a very real sense, a movie is all in your head.
Across
4. Spinning disk in camera that allows light to reach the film.
6. Motion in a motion picture is an optical _______.
7. "Magic moment" when brightness of movie image appears constant (See 9 Across).
8. Film strip is made up of a series of _______ images.
9. See 7 Across.
Down
1. Light sensitive layer of film.
2. "Normal" speed, 24 _______ per second.
3. "Stop-Start" mechanism of movie camera is called ________ movement.
5. It grabs the next frame.
CHAPTER 2Movie Film
That's your great, great uncle Louis Daguerre. He helped invent the light – sensitive silver emulsion you're covered with. He's famous for copper plate photos called daguerreotypes.
Of course, that's your grandad George Eastman. He founded Kodak. He also invented roll film, i.e. film with a plastic base that could be wound into rolls. Without roll film, there wouldn't be movie film.
And here's Charles-Emile Reynaud, your crazy cousin. He came up with the idea of sprocket holes. Without him, you wouldn't move.
In this age of digital imaging, there definitely aren't as many kinds of movie film as there once were. Some, like Kodachrome, Kodak's classic reversal film, are sorely missed. Even so, there are still plenty of options.
Movie film comes in different sizes, called gauges. The gauge refers to the width of the film, e.g. 16mm film is 16 millimeters wide. Home movies used to be shot on super 8. Most movies you watch at the Cineplex are 35mm, aka "Standard Gauge."
Negative vs. Reversal
Film stock can be negative or reversal. When you shoot with negative stock, the film you run through your camera becomes a photographic negative. The negative then needs to be printed onto a new roll of film to make a positive image.
When you shoot reversal, you get positive images right away.
Each type of film has its advantages and disadvantages.
1. What you shoot becomes a positive. You avoid the extra step (and expense) of making a new positive from a negative.
2. Black and white reversal is high contrast with strong blacks. It's a nice look if that's what you're aiming for.
3. Color reversal has saturated colors. Again, a nice look if that's what you want.
1. Reversal doesn't have a great degree of latitude, a term that refers to the range of exposures the film can reproduce. Reversal is not very forgiving if you over or under expose it.
2. Because the film you shoot becomes a positive, you don't have a back-up copy. That said, you can transfer your footage to video and safely stash away your originals.
1. Negative film has more exposure latitude than reversal, so it's easier to expose. Moreover, when you make a positive from the negatives, you have another opportunity to adjust the exposures.
2. Because you make a positive print from your negatives, you can edit or project the positive (called a work print) while keeping your negative safely stashed away.
1. Negative film requires the additional step (and expense) of making a positive print.
Black & White vs. Color
Black and white film consists of three layers: a light-sensitive emulsion, a plastic base that holds the emulsion, and an anti-halation layer that absorbs light that passes through the first two layers, preventing it from fogging the film.
Color film is a bit more complicated. It has three emulsion layers, each sensitive to a particular part of the color spectrum: Red, Green, and Blue.
The emulsion is a layer of gelatin with little grains of light–sensitive silver salt floating in it. The size of those grains determines how sensitive the film is to light: the smaller the grain, the less sensitive; the bigger the grain, the more sensitive.
The measurement of a film's sensitivity to light is its speed.
When you buy film, you can determine its speed by looking at its exposure index (E.I.) number. The lower the E.I., the slower the film. The higher the E.I., the faster the film.
Here is a box of Kodak Plus-X 16mm movie film.
F.Y.I.: You could write a whole book about these film speed numbers. Just remember that your E.I. is usually indicated by two numbers separated by a slash. The number on the left (the ASA or ANSI number) is the one to watch if you're in the U.S.A. The number on the right is its metric equivalent, the DIN number. It's measured in degrees.
Also notice that both films are slightly more sensitive to outdoor light than indoor light. More on this in a second.
Tungsten vs. Daylight
"White" light is actually made up of three primary colors: Red, Green, and Blue. Different light sources have different proportions of these colors.
Our eyes are pretty easygoing about these differences. Sunshine looks white to us, but so does an incandescent light bulb.
Not so for color film and video. They are sensitive to these differences and must be "balanced" for the type of light you're shooting in.
Every light source has a "color temperature" that can be expressed in degrees Kelvin (K), a unit named after the Scottish physicist William Kelvin.
Kelvin discovered that when he heated a block of carbon, it changed color. As the temperature rose, the carbon went from black to red to blue to white hot. So color temperature can tell you something about the color of a light source. The lower the color temperature, the redder the light. The higher the color temp., the bluer the light.
For instance, standard tungsten (indoor) light is 3200°K, which has an orangish hue. Daylight is 5500°K and has a bluish hue.
Here are a couple types of color negative film. On the labels, you'll find the film speed and the film type separated by a slash: 500T/7219 and 50D/7201.
So what do the "T" and the "D" stand for? The "T" lets you know that 7219 is a tungsten–balanced film. The "D" lets you know that 7201 is a daylight–balanced film.
Tungsten-balanced films are made with emulsions that are balanced for the orangish hue of tungsten light, allowing the colors to come out as "neutral" or "natural." Likewise, daylight films are balanced for the bluish hue of daylight.
We're color conversion filters, yo! And convertin's what we do! We take the light and make it right for the film you want to use!
My number is 85, an' I'm orange as you can see, I take daylight and cool it down to 3200 Kelvin degree!
I'm no. 80A, but you can call me "Blue!" Kickin' tungsten light to 55- hundred height is what I like to do!
Take a look at the color film labels again:
For the tungsten–balanced film the E.I. is a speedy 500. But look that happens if you put a no. 85 color conversion filter on your lens. The E.I. is now 320, about 2/3 less sensitive.
Same for the daylight–balanced film. The E.I. is a fairly slow 50 in daylight, but a positively glacial 12 when you shoot through an 80A filter.
Many types of filters that you put on your lens will absorb light, some filters more than others. This is called the filter factor. An 85 filter absorbs 2/3 of a stop, for example; an 80A absorbs 2 stops. When you expose your film, you always have to remember to compensate for the filter factor.
A Neutral Density (ND) filter, on the other hand, is designed especially to reduce the amount of light entering the lens. You can think of an ND filter as sunglasses for your lens. It's a very handy filter to have when you're shooting in a particularly bright situation.
Across
2. Measurement of film's sensitivity to light.
5. Size of file stock, measured in MM.
6. Color temperature is measured in degrees ___________
Down
1. The higher the E.I. number, the ___________ sensitive the film to light.
3. Photo pioneer Louis ___________.
4. Put it on your lens to correct color or reduce exposure.
5. A bit of light sensitive silver salt.
CHAPTER 3The Lens
You can think of the lens as the camera's eyeball. It receives light from the world and focuses it into an image.
A camera "lens" is actually a collection of a number of lenses called elements. Some lenses have a dozen or more elements.
A zoom lens with its elements showing.
A lens refracts (bends) light, focusing an image on the focal plane which is where you find the film, or the sensor chip in a video camera.
Lenses are identified by their focal length. In technical terms, focal length is the distance from the optical center of the lens to the focal plane. But in practical terms, focal length tells you how large a given object will appear in the lens.
A normal lens for a 16mm movie camera has a focal length in the neighborhood of 25mm. It's "normal" because it more or less reproduces how our eye perceives an object.
A wide-angle lens is less than 25mm. Because it has a wider angle of view, a given object appears smaller than with a normal lens.
A telephoto lens is more than 25mm. Because it has a narrower angle of view, a giver object appears larger than with a normal lens.
A wide-angle lens lets you "fit" more into the frame. It's also great for suggesting the spaciousness of what you're shooting – a western landscape, for instance.
A telephoto lens lets you pick out details of things that are far away – say, a rare songbird that is high up in a tree.
Both wide – angle and telephoto lenses can distort visual perspective. These effects may be something you want to achieve or avoid.
A wide angle lens can distort facial features when positioned close to a subject.
It can also exaggerate the distance between the foreground and background:
A telephoto lens, on the other hand, compresses foreground and background space:
Lenses can be prime or zoom. A prime lens has a single, fixed focal length. A zoom lens, on the other hand, has a variable focal length.
The big advantage of a zoom lens is that one lens can do the work of a lot of prime lenses. A zoom with a range of 12mm to 120mm, for instance, can go from wide-angle to telephoto (or any focal length in between) with just a turn of the adjustment ring.
But prime lenses have their fans. Primes make extremely sharp images. They also tend to be faster than zoom lenses, i.e., they let more light pass through. This can be helpful in low-light situations.
Aperture
Your pupil controls the amount of light that enters your eye. When it's dark, your pupil dilates, or opens up, to allow more light in. When it's bright, your pupil contracts.
A lens has a pupil, too, called the aperture. A number of overlapping blades control the size of the aperture. It can be opened up to allow more light to pass through the lens, or closed down to allow less light.
The size of the lens aperture – how wide it's opened – is measured in units called f-stops. F-stop is simply the focal length of the lens divided by the diameter of the aperture. Conveniently, these numbers are marked on your lens.
F-stops are a way to express how much light is entering the lens and, ultimately, exposing the film. The lower the f-stop, the wider the aperture, and the more light; the higher the F-stop, the smaller the aperture, and the less light.
A typical lens has a range of f-stops from f/2 to f/16, though this varies by the lens. Some lenses open a little wider, some close a little more.
Lens speed is indicated by the lowest f-stop a lens can be set to. A "faster" lens allows more light to pass through it than a "slower" lens.
As a rule, prime lenses tend to be faster than zoom lenses, and lenses with shorter focal length tend to be faster than longer lenses.
F-stop math is easy! Every time you open the aperture one stop, youdouble the amount of light passing through the lens. When you close the aperture one stop, you halve the amount of light.
Remember logarithms? F-stops are logarithmic to base 2.
Focus
Focus isn't like a light switch — flip it one way, your image is nice and sharp, flip it the other, it's blurry. Instead, focus is a range, and a single image can contain elements that are acceptably sharp and elements that are not.
Think of your subject as a collection of points a certain distance from your camera. When you focus your lens at that distance, all those points appear as nice, sharp points of focus on your film. But, alas, things are more complicated than this. Since the world is three-dimensional, some of the points are a bit closer to your camera, and some points are a bit farther away. Those outlying points won't appear as points of focus on your film, but as circles:
A point that is a bit closer than the focus distance of the lens appears as a circle.
A point that is a bit farther than the focus distance of the lens appears as a circle. These circles are called circles of confusion, or C.O.C. *
Fortunately, our eyes aren't very finicky. As long as these circles aren't too big, our eyes will perceive them as points of focus.
So what we perceive as "acceptable" focus extends in front of and behind the subject we're focusing on. This zone of focus is called depth of field.
Depth of field can be increased or decreased depending on how much of the scene you want to be in focus. For instance, say you want the viewer to pay attention to a particular element of a scene. You may decide to decrease the depth so only that element is in focus:
Or you may decide to increase the depth so more of the scene is in focus.
Orson Welles famously shot many scenes in Citizen Kane (1941) using "deep focus", i.e. a great deal of depth of field. This allows the viewer to simultaneously watch the action unfold in the near foreground and distant background of the same shot.
There are three primary ways to control depth of field: by opening or closing the lens' aperture, changing the lens' focal length, or physically moving the camera closer to or farther away from your subject.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Action!"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Bill Brown.
Excerpted by permission of Microcosm Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword,
Introduction,
1 The Film Camera,
2 Movie Film,
3 The Lens,
4 Exposing Film,
5 The Video Camera,
6 Exposing Video,
7 The Frame,
8 Lighting,
9 Audio,
Appendix,
Brain Tickler Key,
Index,